- "If you eat the buttocks of a chicken,
you will have a pain in the ass," Chen said.
-
- GARLAND, Texas (www.nando.net) - God failed once again to materialize
in Garland, Texas, Tuesday as prophesied by Taiwan cult leader Chen Hon-Ming,
who quickly changed his prediction.
-
- Instead of witnessing a divine manifestation,
said the silver-haired 42-year-old former college professor, everyone present
had become God at 10 a. m.
-
- "You yourself are Gods," Chen
told the 60 cult members, 80 journalists, many from the Far East, and some
20 neighbors at a two-hour event in front of his house in this quiet Dallas
suburb.
-
- Police had cordoned off the street, allowing
only accredited journalists to enter, including two people dressed as aliens
sent by a Dallas rock radio station.
-
- "P.T. Barnum couldn't put together
a carnival this fast," said Dick Beardsley, 81, a neighbor who complained
to Garland authorities about the disruption to the street he said the cult
created.
-
- The UFO cult leader had repeatedly prophesied
that on March 31, God would appear in Chen's form, clone himself 100,000
times and shake hands with everyone present.
-
- When God (who had also failed to show
up for a Chen-predicted Channel 18 live broadcast at midnight March 24)
did not oblige, Chen asked each person present to shake his own hands.
-
- And without missing a beat, Chen launched
into a host of new predictions, announcing that his group was leaving Wednesday
for Buffalo, New York, to carry on God's work in the Great Lakes region.
-
- Chen warned people not to eat meat or
mistreat their automobiles. He said a non-vegetarian diet would lead to
nightmares in which the consumed animal would appear.
-
- Chen warned drivers that if they abused
their Chevrolet it could run them over while they lay asleep.
-
- "If you eat the buttocks of a chicken,
you will have a pain in the ass," Chen said, adding that eating meat
would lead to diarrhea, indigestion and decrepitude.
-
- He repeated his prediction that China
and Taiwan would go to war in January 1999, leading to a nuclear holocaust.
(The populations of the warring countries would be rescued by God in a
flying saucer and shuttled to Gary, Indiana.)
-
- There was no outward disenchantment from
his followers, who were wearing their habitual white sweatshirts and pants
and straw cowboy hats. Lin Hung-chih, 38, who left behind a veterinary
practice in Taiwan, said some followers were indeed disappointed, but he
and his wife were not.
-
- "It was a beautiful experience,"
said Lin, who admitted he had expected God to appear in Chen's form.
-
- "Some are disappointed. I am not,"
Lin said.
-
- Lin was among the 30 or so followers
who bought houses in Garland late last year. Although they were believers,
Lin said he and his wife were leaving the group and moving to Vancouver
because their U.S. tourist visas were running out and they had permission
to immigrate to Canada.
-
- Local banker Walter Hsu said about one-third
of the cult were heading back to Taiwan, and would sell or rent the houses
they had bought in Garland.
-
- The group -- formally called the God
and Buddha Salvation Foundation, though members refer to themselves as
followers of "Jen Dao," the True Way -- had selected Garland
for their home because the name sounded to those from Taiwan like "Godland,"
according to Chen.
-
- Garland police lieutenant Don Martin
said that the costs of handling the media and the cult since December totalled
$100,000.
-
- "It's quite strange, to say the
least, it's our first experience dealing with such a multitude of media.
Let's wish this happens somewhere else next."
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